Process of painting pottery



UNTTEn STATES PATENT GEErcE.

THOMAS J. WHEATLEY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

PROCESS OF PAINTING POTTERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 232,791, datedSeptember 28, 1880. Application filed June 24, 1880. (Specimens) To allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. WHEATLEY, of Cincinnati, Hamilton county,Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of PaintingPottery and other Ceramics, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to employ underglaze colors to pottery andother ceramics in such a manner as to cause the colors to becomeintegral with the ware as soon as the latter is baked, thereby adding tothe beauty and durability of the ornamentation and increasing the valueof the ware, as hereinafter more fully described.

The first step in my improved art of ornamentation consists in formingthe vessel or other piece of ware of any suitable plastic clay, andwhile yet moist or damp there is applied to it the background tint,which tint is composed of any appropriate oxide or underglaze colormixed with white slip. The background tint thus prepared is applied tothe damp piece with a brush, care being taken to give the article athick uniform coating of said tint. The white slip employed in thisprocess is the kind used in all potteries in manufacturing Parian wareor white delft, the slip bein g simply mixed with water until thedesired consistency is obtained. \Vhile this background coat of tintedslip is yet damp the piece is decorated with landscapes, flowers,figures, animals, or other desired ornamentation, which decorations areapplied with a brush or other convenient tool or implement. Theappropriate oxide colors or other pigments used for these decorationsare mixed with slip in any suitable proportions, and if the ornamentsconsist of a bunch of flowers or fruit or other simple group it ispreferred to impaste the colors, so as to cause such a group to standout in high relief after the piece is burned, which burning is effectedby placing the article in an ordinary kiln heated to the propertemperature-say about two thousand degrees. After being baked asufficientlength of time, according to the size of the piece and thekind of clay of which it is composed, the article is then removed fromthe kiln or oven in the condition commonly known as bis cuit, anexamination of which will show that the colored ornaments have been sothoroughly baked onto the ware as to become integral therewith. Thisbiscuit is now dipped in any suitable glaze and then reheated, so as togive it the final or vitreous coating, which operation completes theprocess.

From the above description it will be apparent that the coloredornaments are so completely fused or burnt onto the substance of theware as to become part of the material body of the same, andconsequently they cannot scale off or be removed by any means short ofthe destruction of the vessel.

Finally, to define my invention more explicitly, it consists in bakingtinted clay or- 11am ents onto pottery or other ceramics.

I claim as my invention- The \vithindescribed improvement in the art ofpainting ceramics, which improvement consists in mixing underglazecolors with slip or other suitable clay vehicle, then applying suchtinted clays to the piece and baking or burning them onto the same so asto become integral with the substance of the ware, for the purposespecified.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.

T. J. VVIIEATLEY.

Witnesses:

JAMES H. LAYMAN, GEO. H. KOLKER.

